


Fear

by abetternameneeded



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:08:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25907842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abetternameneeded/pseuds/abetternameneeded
Summary: Alice is scared when she has to go into the castle in 7x22.
Relationships: Alice | Tilly/Robin | Margot
Kudos: 9





	Fear

Alice stared at the grand structure. They had to go in there. Why did it have to be a castle? She could hve handled almost any other place. But this one was harder for her than she had expected. She wasn't scared to jump off a roof, or out of a moving car, or talk to animals that Robin said might kill her, or to defend others when the odds weren't exactly in her favor . But this? This big stone building covered in moss. This scared her. Scared her more than she thought possible. If she went inside this building, she may never leave. She didn't want to be trapped again. But she had to face this. She couldn't leave the people she cared about alone when they needed her help. So she'd go inside even if the fear was so much she wasn't sure she could move.

"Alice, are you okay?" Robin asked standing next to her.

"Aye, come on let's go help our friends." Alice had to help her papa and the others. Hopefully they could get out of here once they went in. She didn't want to be stuck inside another tower. This one did seem quite a bit bigger than hers, though.

They walked inside and found the snowglobe everyone they cared about was trapped in. They thanked them for saving them.

Alice was so happy to see her papa. She needed his comfort. He always made her feel less trapped. She stepped forward, he recoiled in pain. She had forgotten. This place was messing with her so badly. She had forgotten that she couldn't hug him. Robin comforted her as she pulled back and apologized. He told her not to. But she was sorry she'd hurt him. She wished she hadn't.

They sat around the round table. The window letting in lots of light not bringing her any comfort. And then they had looked through the storybooks. Everyone would be alone. Alice would be alone again. She couldn't handle this. She didn't want to think about this. She hoped they could go outside soon. Accepting Robin's hand as comfort.

Papa said he wouldn't let it happen. She believed in him.

"Take Robin and Henry," Alice couldn't stay in this castle. Everyone she knew well enough that they could make her feel safe here was leaving.

"I'll go with them, I'm getting good at staying far enough away for safety." Maybe she believed this but really, she'd try to stay far enough back. She just couldn't stay in this bloody castle. It reminded her so much of the prison she had left behind. And she couldn't do it. If Robin and papa and Henry were all elsewhere she'd be forced to face her fears with people, she barely knew. And she couldn't do that.

And then they had to go in the castle again. This time she had a moment she could wait. They didn't have to go inside immediately. Robin saw the worry apparent on Alice's face as she stared at the stones and moss and turrets. The walls so clearly mimicking the walls that once held her as a prisoner. She had been so alone. And now she couldn't go to her papa to make her feel better.

"Alice, are you okay?" Robin asked.

Alice shook her head. "No. What if? What if I go in there and I get trapped again? That's what this world's Rumpelstiltskin wants isn't it? For all of us to be alone? I can't do that again Robin. I don't like being alone."

Robin glanced at the girl whose father she had asked for his blessing to marry a little while before. "I won't let that happen. Okay? And your dad won't let it happen either." And they went back into the castle. Robin comforting her as much as she could.

Alice kept her distance from her papa. She wished she could hug him. He always knew how to make her feel better. But she couldn't. So, she stood in the room of the castle, afraid that she'd never leave it. Or would leave it just to be locked up and trapped somewhere else.


End file.
